WRC Rally Finland: Pre-event test "key" to podium - Ostberg

Citroen's Mads Ostberg believes the team's pre-event test helped pave the way for him to finish third on Rally Finland

Citroen's Mads Ostberg believes preparation was the "key" to his third place finish on Rally Finland.

Unlike for Rally Poland, where Ostberg struggled and only finished ninth, Citroen did four days of testing, and while the Norwegian conceded he was still a bit slow at the start, he ran a lot stronger in his DS 3 WRC, posting top-six times in 18 of the 20 stages - peaking with four thirds.

Pressed on how important the pre-event test was, Ostberg replied: "Yeah for sure, it was the key to this result.

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"I'm very pleased we were able to give that back to the team. When we are pushing together it pays off. Everybody is very happy."

"It was definitely a good weekend. I struggled a lot three weeks ago [in Poland] but turned it around here," he added. "I was a bit slow on Friday morning, but since then I caught quite a good rhythm. Okay, I was not able to fight completely at the top, but we managed to keep the pressure for the podium and in the end we are here.

"It's a nice result and a good comeback. I enjoyed the whole rally. It feels good to be back and fighting after Poland.

"I hope we can continue to prepare for the other rallies like this."

Meanwhile, Ostberg revealed that there probably was more speed there, but that he didn't want to take too many risks.

"I didn't make the perfect stage all weekend. I tried many, many times and was close, but the final little touch is so difficult some times. I tried too hard in some stages, but I was a bit over the edge. I didn't want to destroy anything, I wanted the points and I tried to be a bit clever," he explained.

"I wanted to be fast and to manage this very well and when the rain came [on Saturday] I decided to be clever.

"I knew I had to bring some confidence from this rally onto the tarmac [in Germany in three weeks time], which is a big challenge for me."

Asked if this result will help him keep his seat with Citroen in 2016, Ostberg replied: "Obviously it helps. I don't want to stop and I don't think I should when I'm third in the drivers' championship, but it's important to continue to perform [too]."